Identity

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."

You can see, hear, feel, and taste the injustice, frustration, and naiveté experienced at this ladies' get together.

In this poem, the speaker addresses his father, recalling for him the lush Puerto Rican landscape that he grew up in. Now, this green can be seen only in his father's dreams.

This excerpt explains that families are defined by love, caring and sharing, not the number or gender of its members.

A trip to Haiti gives Joseph a new perspective on his identity and his adoption.

The distrust between the Jewish community and African-American community in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn in the 1990s reached an all-time high when a runaway car struck two children.

In their trek from Mexico to the U.S. border, this young group is reminded that dangers lurk beneath them and hang over their heads every day and every night.

“He said, 'When the border patrol changes shifts, you're going to run.'”

“My father went to work in a chocolate factory. When he'd come home, his hair was all full of chocolate; his pillows were all brown.”

Felipe Morales' telling account of an encounter with a blind woman on the streets of Washington, D.C. was recorded for This I Believe. The NPR project features brief personal essays in which people from diverse backgrounds discuss how their values affect their daily lives.

In this essay, Nhi relates her experience of moving to the United States from Vietnam when she was in high school. Her story illustrates the value of perseverance and “putting yourself out there.”

To cover is to downplay aspects of our identity that make us different from mainstream society. Kenji Yoshino argues that, although we live in an age where the law prohibits many forms of discrimination, people still face pressure to hide who they are.

Sean McCollum gives an account of writer Julia Alvarez's move to the United States from the Dominican Republic as a young girl. Although Alvarez struggled to fit in in this unfamiliar place, she finally found a comfortable niche in her writing.